Archives

Libraries and Village Education

Khudgoth Village Library

This is a village library run at a village six kilometres away from the touristy place of Dalhousie. It has a choice of over 3000 books in Hindi and English and also provides magazines for women and children. The main aim behind the library is to get the children to get familiar to books and feel comfortable with the habit of reading. This village is also located in the tribal ‘Gaddi belt’, where everyone speaks the local dialect in daily life, so there is a necessity for the children to familiarise themselves with literary Hindi, which is the key to successful education as Hindi is the official language and the medium of education in the schools. The children are provided with books for reading and borrowing free of cost. They are encouraged to come to the library to do their homework or simply to enjoy educational games and drawing.

Kholpukhar Village Primary School Library

In 2008, we decided that we needed to take concrete steps to ensure that the village children actually started reading, writing and most important of all thinking…….. as a matter of habit. Hence we decided to get involved with the local school and open a Library there. This is the first year, so we have undertaken to involve the first and second classes. Isabelle has formulated a program which involves memory retention, reading and creative exercises for the children. It is a great success with the children and we have a great time story telling and playing games with them.

Khudgoth Computer Centre

A computer centre to bring awareness about the uses of the latest information technology for the rural areas. Through the use of the computer and internet we would be able to provide the people with the wealth of knowledge regarding animal husbandry, agricultural development and health and medicine.

Naddi and Satobari village libraries

Each of the tailoring schools in Satobari and Naddi villages is equipped with small libraries having about a hundred books each as well as periodicals. The choice of women’s magazines in Hindi makes it quite popular with the village women and girls.

Naddi and Ghera literacy classes

In the villages, girls usually quit their studies much before the boys and by the age of 15 they are working full time on the farms with their mothers. Regular reading habits, in these girls ensures that they do not forget what they had learnt in the village school (which do not have a very high standard). A special teacher has been employed in the tailoring schools of the villages of Ghera and Naddi to teach the girls who dropped out of the school at a young age. This teacher tutors them in reading, writing in Hindi and also gives them the basics of arithmetic and geometry, which is also essential for making garment patterns and taking measurements.